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Updated: Jun 30, 2025
Hippocampal Neuronal Cultures to Detect and Study New Pathogenic Antibodies Involved in Autoimmune Encephalitis
Published on: June 2, 2022
Optimizing the diagnostic performance of neural antibody testing for paraneoplastic and autoimmune encephalitis in
Adrian Budhram1, Eoin P Flanagan2
1Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences, Western University, London Health Sciences Centre, London, ON, Canada; Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Western University, London Health Sciences Centre, London, ON, Canada.
Abstract:
The detection of neural antibodies in patients with paraneoplastic and autoimmune encephalitis has majorly advanced the diagnosis and management of neural antibody-associated diseases. Although testing for these antibodies has historically been restricted to specialized centers, assay commercialization has made this testing available to clinical chemistry laboratories worldwide. This improved test accessibility has led to reduced turnaround time and expedited diagnosis, which are beneficial to patient care. However, as the utilization of these assays has increased, so too has the need to evaluate how they perform in the clinical setting. In this chapter, we discuss assays for neural antibody detection that are in routine use, draw attention to their limitations and provide strategies to help clinicians and laboratorians overcome them, all with the aim of optimizing neural antibody testing for paraneoplastic and autoimmune encephalitis in clinical practice.
